3 ms·

You're making some strong claims here, care to back them up? I'm not convinced that suburban/rural life is unsustainable just because you say it is.

by kylec 10y ago

pnathan 10y ago
Yes, it's a strong claim. To be honest, I don't have a list of citations. But I have spent a lot of time reading the New Urbanism materials. I have spent a fair amount of time taking in the comments of the Green movement. I also have spent a good deal of my life in the rural/suburban state of Idaho. So collecting that experience, I will say: it's not sustainable. It's so not sustainable that it's abusing the environment; so not sustainable that small cities are struggling; it is so not sustainable that low-density economies are collapsing e'er so slowly but visibly in real time. The social costs of isolation and low density living are taking a toll - the empty suburban life is cliche; the rural world is becoming linked with meth addiction to stave off the issues. It's not just market forces; it's market forces plus governmental help (there's no "free market" in the US when it comes to housing), and tremendous environmental issues. If you really want, I can spend a few hours collating references and send you an annotated bibliography. It won't be complete, and it certainly won't be able to capture my experiences living out of the city.
- kylec 10y ago
  I'm not going to tell you what to do, but if you want to convince other people of your opinion I suggest writing up your argument into a well-cited article. Personally, I'm skeptical, but I'm willing to consider what you have to say. Specifically, you have twice mentioned the environmental impact of low vs high density living and I'm curious to know more about that.
  - pnathan 10y ago
    Understood. I'm going to try to scrape this together as an actual article/essay and put it on my fine website. It'll be a week or two in coming, I think(a software engineer just made an estimate, insert lols as appropriate). I'll email you when I'm done.

You're making some strong claims here, care to back them up? I'm not convinced that suburban/rural life is unsustainable just because you say it is.

by kylec 10y ago

You're making some strong claims here, care to back them up? I'm not convinced that suburban/rural life is unsustainable just because you say it is.

pnathan 10y ago

Yes, it's a strong claim. To be honest, I don't have a list of citations. But I have spent a lot of time reading the New Urbanism materials. I have spent a fair amount of time taking in the comments of the Green movement. I also have spent a good deal of my life in the rural/suburban state of Idaho. So collecting that experience, I will say: it's not sustainable. It's so not sustainable that it's abusing the environment; so not sustainable that small cities are struggling; it is so not sustainable that low-density economies are collapsing e'er so slowly but visibly in real time. The social costs of isolation and low density living are taking a toll - the empty suburban life is cliche; the rural world is becoming linked with meth addiction to stave off the issues. It's not just market forces; it's market forces plus governmental help (there's no "free market" in the US when it comes to housing), and tremendous environmental issues. If you really want, I can spend a few hours collating references and send you an annotated bibliography. It won't be complete, and it certainly won't be able to capture my experiences living out of the city.

kylec 10y ago
I'm not going to tell you what to do, but if you want to convince other people of your opinion I suggest writing up your argument into a well-cited article. Personally, I'm skeptical, but I'm willing to consider what you have to say. Specifically, you have twice mentioned the environmental impact of low vs high density living and I'm curious to know more about that.
- pnathan 10y ago
  Understood. I'm going to try to scrape this together as an actual article/essay and put it on my fine website. It'll be a week or two in coming, I think(a software engineer just made an estimate, insert lols as appropriate). I'll email you when I'm done.